Policeman shot dead, curfew continues in Kashmir on day 50

Ehsan Fazili

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 27

A policeman was shot dead by suspected militants on Saturday morning, while the body of a youth was fished out of the Jhelum near Sangam in Pulwama district, as the current unrest entered day 50.

The police said suspected militants shot at senior-grade constable Khurshid Ahmad Ganai from close range at Quil in Pulwama around 6 when he was on his way to work. The injured policeman was shifted to a hospital in Pulwama, where he succumbed to his injuries, police said.

J&K Police personnel have become the target of protesters and militants since the eruption of present situation since early July. J&K Police and CRPF personnel have been handling the law-and-order situation in the valley, where normal life has been paralysed with continued curfew and restrictions coupled with separatists-sponsored shutdowns.

The body of youth Shahnawaz Ahmad Khan was fished out of the Jhelum on Saturday after he jumped into the river while a group of protesters was being chased by the police at Marhama village at Sangam in Pulwama district on Friday. Two others who had also jumped into the river to escape the chase managed to swim out soon after, while the youth could not be traced on Friday evening.

Meanwhile, curfew remained in force in the entire Srinagar district for the second consecutive day on Saturday while restrictions are imposed elsewhere and around security forces’ installations in view of the separatists’ protest programme on Saturday. Srinagar remained under curfew to prevent ‘the Eidgah Chalo’ call by separatists on Friday.

Curfew has also been imposed in Anantnag, Pulwama and Pampore towns.

Ahead of Saturday’s protest programme by the separatists to march towards Army’s 15 Corps at Badami Bagh and “hand over letters asking them to vacate Jammu and Kashmir”, moderate APHC chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was detained and kept under preventive custody at Chashme Shahi since Friday.